Press

The Battle Creek-based International Food Protection Training Institute announced this week it would work with the government of Saudi Arabia to establish a Regional Food Safety Academy there.

The academy will train Saudi Food and Drug Authority employees in partnership with Michigan State University and the Saudi government.

A few minutes of exercise can help children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder perform better academically, according to a new study led by a Michigan State University researcher.

The study, published in the current issue of the Journal of Pediatrics, shows for the first time that kids with ADHD can better drown out distractions and focus on a task after a single bout of exercise. Scientists say such "inhibitory control" is the main challenge faced by people with the disorder.

Two unlikely lab-fellows at Michigan State University have teamed up to discover a bacteria that eats a toxic chemical and leaves behind pure gold.

Through their collaboration, which culminated in the art installation, "The Great Work of the Metal Lover," the pair discovered that the bacteria are at least 25 times stronger than previously reported among scientists.

The artwork uses a combination of biotechnology, art and alchemy to turn liquid gold into 24-karat gold in a portable laboratory – producing gold in front of an audience.

At a recent academic conference, Michigan State University professor Natalie Phillips stole a glance around the room. A speaker was talking but the audience was fidgety. Some people were conferring among themselves, or reading notes. One person had dozed off.

Phillips, who studies 18th- and 19th-century literature, says the distracted audience made something pop in her head. Distractability is a theme that runs through many novels of Jane Austen, whom Phillips admires. It occurred to Phillips that there was a paradox in her own life when it came to distractability.